Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is almost over, and we felt a fall wind through our windows the other night. Mmm, I love fall winds, well I love fall..

It's time to take a deep breath after a whirlwind month of Sage's summer vacation. It's been lots of fun, so much fun that I haven't had time to write or post hardly. We've been and done and stayed up late many a night. No time to waste, eh! I'm waiting for Hello to post some pics, so I'll try to write a little anyway. Sage is at his Jiji and Baba's for tonight and tomorrow night. He was so excited to go, his girl cousins are all there too. Even his newest -Nozomi-born August 5th to Kenji's older sister Makiko and her husband Masaru and their little girls Manami and Megumi too-congrats!

You'll see what we've done from the pictures I'll be posting. No time to get bored of summer vacation in one month though! Sage isn't ready to go back. When I asked him what was best, he said playing with all the kids and people. I'm glad that, rather than a destination.

Besides the fun stuff, the work is always here! The eggplants and peppers survived the aphids and are thriving once again, the cukes may or may not, many succumbed, although I'm not sure if it was just the aphids, maybe they had a virus of some type. Besides laying the straw under them, they were sprayed with a vitamin spray, the aphids sprayed off with water often and Ray says the ladybugs may have finally arrived in force to eat the aphids. Sage has now taught me the difference between the good and bad ladybugs:). There is one bad type here and many different types of good ones. The winter wheat and rye have been harvested and the potatoes have died off and we'll start harvesting them next week. The first batch of corn is almost ready too. The beets we started harvesting yesterday. Kenji spends many hours weedeating. They don't have a brush hog here, many places are pretty tight for one. The weedeater he uses, uses a blade rather than a string, it works great and is long enough not to be dangerous.It is best to keep all the weeds along the fields and everywhere cut down before they go to seed, an endless job. The rice had a run with little inchworms, so Ray sprayed with a bacteria used by organic farmers, very specific to this stage of butterfly(I think), upsets their delicate intestinal balance and takes away their appetite! Worked great, so he was very pleased. Yesterday he said he saw quite a few stinkbugs. They suck out part of the baby rice kernel which is like sweet milk right now and leave a black mark on the kernal when it's harvested, doesn't look nice!

Lucas is the number one raw veggie eater around here. Found him chawing on a overlarge zucchini left out on the ground, nice little chomp marks all around it in spirals! The other boys were all using them to make pretend food with, but they said he was saying it was yummy. He also likes to break the tips off the green onions while we are in the gardens and eat them, can't believe it, but he doesn't spit them out either! Of course he's loving the tomatoes too, he ate a whole large one the other day outside! He eats them best off the plants, as do the other boys.

Ray and Akiko are leaving the 5th of September with their boys to go to the States for 5 months. Ray is trying to finish up course work at AMBS(Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary-maybe?)
and give their boys a chance to practice their English. They have a good start, so it should really be a big boost for them. We'll miss them here, it will be interesting! We'll be harvesting the rice and some of the potatoes and the winter squash after they leave. Many detailed instructions are being given-think equipment operation and storage! Delivery for the CSA continues through the first part of November and then eggs every other week through the winter. And we get orders for potatoes and beets etc to send out through the winter too.

Kenji and I are starting to think about plans for when we return to the States. Not because we are thinking about leaving here, but because we realize any plans we make will take quite a bit of planning, and not having anything set up to go back to...We are dreaming, thinking ,along the lines of some type of organic farming. Not sure we want to go the CSA route, but anyway. Lots of fun ideas, but no real business plans yet, speaking of practical issues like how much money can you make doing it and how much do you need to live on! Looking for good ideas, any out there?? If you are interested in such things, and have some thoughts, please email us with them or send us websites/links etc. OH, also good land...We are in the gathering ideas, info stage!

Kenji's dad has continued to spend quite a bit of time here, although he's taken more time off since Kenji's sister gave birth as they first hosted the other two little girls, and now Makiko and the baby too. Kenji's parents are very involved and helpful in their kids and grandkids lives, thanks! He was here this week and made us a bed and worked on other things around the house. The boys were glad to have him back. They were beginning to wonder why he was leaving for so long, I mean this is home, right??)

Well, this is seeming rather boring, so I'll sign off, pics will come soon I hope. If you're reading this let me know!Love to hear from you, I get alot of your scoops from faithful mom.